Generally, a typical electrical connector includes an insulating or dielectric housing defining some form of mating configuration for mating the connector with a complementary mating connector or other connecting device. For example, the connector housing may define a male or plug connector, or the connector housing may define a female or socket connector. The dielectric housing may be a stand-alone component, or it may be adapted for mounting on a printed circuit board, in a panel or in association with other mounting structures.
One or more conductive terminals are mounted on or in the connector housing. The terminals can have a wide range of configurations depending on the use of the connector. However, the terminals typically have contact portions for engaging the contact portions of terminals in the complementary mating connecting device. One type of terminal is a stamped and formed terminal of sheet metal material, and such terminals may have a contact leg or blade of flat sheet metal material.
Some form of retention system must be employed to hold the terminals on or in the connector housing. The retention systems also vary widely. The terminals may be press-fit into terminal-receiving cavities, or the terminals may have latching portions for latching with complementary latches on the connector housing. One form of retention system involves overmolding a plastic housing about portions of the terminals to rigidify and hold the terminals on the housing.
One problem with overmolding terminals as described above concerns maintaining portions of the terminals, such as the contact portions, at proper positioning, spacing or pitch during the overmolding process. This is particularly problematic with the ever-increasing miniaturization of electrical connectors, whereby the terminals are very small and the contact portions of the terminals are extremely narrow and closely spaced. For instance, if the contact portions or other portions of the terminals are so closely spaced as to be touching each other, corresponding portions of the molding die may not even be able to be positioned between the terminal portions. The terminal portions actually can be damaged when the mold tooling is closed. In addition, when the molten dielectric (plastic) material is inserted into the mold, the material is under high pressure and can actually move or bend the terminal portions. The present invention is directed to solving these problems in such electrical connectors which include dielectric housings overmolded about metal terminals.